Senator Ataullahjan: Leader, last month it was reported that just 66 homebuyers in Toronto have qualified under the First‑Time Home Buyer Incentive program since it was created in 2019. This is despite the fact that the Trudeau government made changes in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement that it claimed would increase eligibility for Toronto homebuyers.

Leader, when this program was created, the Trudeau government said it would help up to 100,000 Canadians become homeowners, but as of last November, fewer than 14,000 have been helped. Has your government done an analysis or review of the program to determine why it has been such a failure?

Hon. Salma Ataullahjan: Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader in the Senate. According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, in March of 2021 the average selling price of a home in the Greater Toronto Area was just under $1.1 million. Last month, in March of 2022, the average price was $1.29 million, an increase of over 18% in just a year. Our youth are giving up on their dream of owning their own homes. I think of my own daughter, who was distraught because she couldn’t find anything for $600,000, not even a cubbyhole in Toronto.

The program put forward by the Trudeau government to help them has failed. In its recent pre-budget submission, Mortgage Professionals Canada had this to say about the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive program:

The . . . FTHBI doesn’t assist anyone to qualify to purchase a home who would not have already otherwise qualified.

Leader, your government changed the criteria for this program, yet it made no difference. Will you scrap it and bring forward a program that actually helps Canadians?

Senator Ataullahjan: Senator, I would agree with you. It does set a dangerous precedent. I am all for demonstrations, as I said, but we need to have peaceful protest. We need to give Canadians the ability to let us know how they feel. Like Senator Batters mentioned yesterday, the Ukrainian community is very concerned. I know that in Toronto, they were out expressing their concern. They were out there protesting, but they can’t come to the federal capital, the seat of the government, so I hear you.

As a human rights person, I support peaceful protests where no one feels threatened and no one feels they don’t have the ability to perform their duties or go to work. However, this time, there were instances where some young girls in scarves had to be accompanied. It was one of our own MPs who brought this issue up, so we were seeing people feeling threatened. I think it’s better to look at the reality of what was happening. We wish it didn’t happen. We wish it had been handled better, but we have a Prime Minister who was missing. We didn’t hear anything from the government. I fielded calls from irate Liberal supporters who said, “Where’s our Prime Minister?”

Peaceful protest? I’m all for it.

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